Mike DeWine is Willing to Put Ohioans’ Lives in Danger Because He’s Scared of His Fellow Republicans
March 15, 2022
For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the various ways Mike DeWine has used Ohioans’ safety as a political pawn over the years, as he flip-flops and breaks his promises to Ohio voters time and again in order to shore up his own political support. Yesterday, DeWine signed Senate Bill 215 into law, selling out law enforcement officers and Ohio families in order to keep the gun lobby happy and breaking his promise to voters to ‘do something’ to combat the threat of gun violence in the state.
DeWine, underwater with political support from his own party, is willing to do or say anything to get himself reelected, even if it means breaking his promises and putting Ohioans’ lives in danger in the process – from signing ‘stand your ground’ legislation into law to his recent signature of SB 215. While DeWine promised to ‘do something,’ the only thing he’s done is make Ohioans more vulnerable to gun violence.
“Perhaps the most consistent aspect of DeWine’s approach to firearms is its inconsistency,” writes Jessie Balmert for the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“Mike DeWine is so scared of a primary challenge from his fellow Republicans, he’s willing to put Ohioans’ lives on the line. It’s despicable to watch DeWine sell out law enforcement officers and Ohio families all to try and hold on in a Republican primary in which most voters oppose him,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.
Read more from the Enquirer here and below:
- Gov. Mike DeWine once earned an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association.
- Over the years, Second Amendment advocates have had a love-hate relationship with DeWine.
- Perhaps the most consistent aspect of DeWine’s approach to firearms is its inconsistency. That leaves him open to attacks from both the right and the left as he faces a four-way GOP primary and, if he wins the nomination, a November election after that.
- The law DeWine signed Monday will allow Ohioans to carry concealed weapons without training or permits. A long list of groups opposed the change, including the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio and several county sheriffs. Democrats condemned DeWine’s decision to sign Senate Bill 215, which will take effect in 90 days.
- “This just shows DeWine doesn’t really stand for anything when it comes to common-sense gun legislation and that when he promised the people of Dayton that he would do something, he wasn’t meaningful about it at all,” said former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who is running for governor as a Democrat. Whaley was the mayor of Dayton when a gunman killed nine people in the city’s Oregon District in 2019.
- While in Congress, DeWine supported background checks at gun shows and a ban on assault weapons. That led the NRA to give him an “F” rating and the Brady campaign to endorse his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate against Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2006. In 2002, a Columbus Dispatch article described DeWine as a “Republican who’s not afraid to stand up to the National Rifle Association.”
- In his 2010 bid for Ohio attorney general, DeWine started to remake his image into a more pro-Second Amendment, more pro-gun politician.
- Once elected, he worked on reciprocity agreements with other states so gun owners permitted to carry concealed weapons in Ohio could do so elsewhere. He backed efforts to arm teachers after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
- Husted, who has a consistently high rating with the NRA, joined DeWine’s gubernatorial ticket in late 2017, shoring up support from Second Amendment advocates wary of DeWine’s history on guns. As part of that campaign, DeWine made promises to sign bills such as stand your ground and permitless carry.
- But DeWine broke other promises with those bills, promises he made to a grieving crowd in Dayton after the 2019 mass shooting. They called on him to “do something” about gun violence, and in the weeks after, it appeared he might.
- DeWine, standing with Whaley and a slew of law enforcement officers, unveiled a list of reforms that he called “STRONG Ohio.” The list included background checks for most firearm purchases, harsher penalties for felons banned from having guns and a “red flag”-like proposal to remove guns from those with mental health or violence issues.
- “If we do these things, it will matter,” DeWine said at the time. “If we do these things, it will make us safer.”
- Ultimately, he did few of those things. Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature was not interested in restricting gun rights. Lobbyists picked apart each proposal. DeWine’s ideas even sparked turmoil within Buckeye Firearms Association, which removed its top lobbyist at the time.
- DeWine was under pressure – from 2018 campaign promises and from his GOP opponents – to sign the concealed carry changes into law. And he did, 50 days before the May 3rd primary.
- But will support of bills such as this hurt DeWine in a November general election? Democratic candidates Whaley and former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley certainly hope so.
- DeWine, Cranley said, “has shredded all credibility on common-sense gun safety issues.”
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